Abbie Won!

This is Abbie. She's the friend who convinced me that I could make these crazy figure suits and then actually wore the finished product on stage in front of people. She won third in her class in women's figure last weekend at the NPC Northern Bodybuilding competition.

I still don't quite get which machine in the gym prepares you to walk around in those ridiculous shoes.

Congrats, Ab!

Things have been even crazier than usual for us this fall, so I haven't had as much time as I like to spend in my workshop (can you ever have as much time as you'd like in your workshop?). Okay, so that was a rhetorical question. But because it's soccer season, I have managed a few minutes here and there to do some knitting.

I invented a lacy pattern for a shawl/wrap thing that I finished a week or so ago, that's the lovely grey thing up there. I made it from wool that I recycled from a sweater I bought at Goodwill. It was a really soft nice sweater, but it had a few moth holes, so I unknit it and started over. I have enough yarn left to do some hats and mittens, too, I think. I really kind of like the concept of recycled yarn, and when I get some free time (!?) I'm going to explore that some more.

I found this buttefly sunning himself in the garden infront of Latin School one day when I was picking up the boys. I had a dickens of a time getting a good picture of him, as the shutter delay on my camera and his willingness to keep his wings open didn't seem to mesh really well. But I did finally get a shot and through the wonders of photoshop I was able to brighten up the picture enough so that we could finally see him. I am so NOT a photographer. I do try, though, and I get the odd good shot.

I used the same pattern as for my lacy shawl to make a scarf. I used larger needles and a three wrap stitch for the loopy part instead of two wraps as I did on the shawl, so it's got a much more open knit. I used a couple of balls of yarn that I spun from a grab bag I bought last spring.

On the spinning wheel right now I have some alpaca/dog yarn in the works. Dog hair is not the easiest thing in the world to work with, it's awfully short, but it's clinging to the alpaca well enough to spin, I think, and I might be able to make enough yarn to have a Stella and Lucy memento to wear around my neck some day. I might knit Sam a hat from it, he is the most likely victim to appreciate a garment made of dog hair!

a little catching up to do

I am so in arrears about posting here, and I blame facebook. I have spent a little too much time tending to my farmville farm (a facebook app) that I haven't paid attention to any of the other parts of my virtual life...and then when I go to my favorite blogs, I see they are not updated, either...could all my virtual friends be tending their virtual farms? ACK!

anyway, now that the kids are back in school, things have gotten way crazy with all the driving around. Dan is doing a great job of getting his grades in shape, though, so I am hoping against all hope that he'll be in position to get his license in October when he qualifies to take the test. Not sure I'll ever be ready to let him go through the cut-in-the-hill during rush hour, but maybe to a practice now and then...that would be great!

Sam spent most of his summer traveling around doing boy scout things. He went to BadinPowel Leadership training, summer camp and Philmont, which is a high adventure backpacking thing in New Mexico. He was pretty tired when he got back, but he's grown up a little, too, I think.

This is Sam at graduation from NYLT (the leadership thing).

Stella missed her boy alot while he was gone this summer. This is a funny picture, because her body appears to be missing, and in reality, she weighs about 300 pounds.

The old dog. It's really hard to get a decent picture of Lucy, the black dog thing doesn't photograph too well, and she moves alot (although not as much as she used to. Sometimes we have to stop and make sure she's still breathing).

this is poor, pitiful Karen, after being forced to pull pork all morning on the fourth of July. she is covered in grease. Okay, i agree, I avoid the pork-pulling like the plague!

Dan is playing goal keeper for the soccer team this fall, which is interesting, since he never played goalie before this year, and only last year came back to soccer after an 8 year haiatus. He's working hard to learn the position though, and will probably get some good varsity time in later in the season.

Haven't had much time for crafting, which is a drag, because I'm driving so much. Not getting home until 9 or so most nights leaves me about pooped out when it comes to sitting down in front of the Huskvarna...but I have done a little knitting, actually designed my own shawl/wrap thing that I've almost finished. If I can only find the camera to photograph it...

Let's go to the FAIR!

Tom and I snuck out the other night and went to the Boone County Fair. I had been once before when the kids were little, during the day. We saw a baby beauty pageant which kind of frightened me, and some really pretty needle work, stuff like that. Boy, at night, though, it really gets cooking (both literally and figuratively!)

We watched the draft horse cinder block pulling competition. Those horses get into it!

And who can pass up the Holy Donuts? This one is a family favorite because Sam earned a whole school years worth of service hours 'working' in this trailer at St. Tim's Oktoberfest. I think the service he provided was eating the donuts before they could get cold. You know, a housekeeping sort of a thing.

Of course there was a game and ride area, but we old people got to skip that. But the Ferris Wheel was purty anyway.

The highlight for Tom and a frighteningly large number of other people was the mini-car demolition derby. The lady behind us was apparently a connoiseur, because she seemed to know an awful lot about the drivers from previous week's fairs and competitions. Whatever!

Oh, the humanity!

This car won the demoliton derby beauty contest. We didnt' stick around long enough to see if being pretty is a benefit in a demoliton derby, however.

I did NOT eat any of this stuff. Okay, I had fried pickles from the next booth over, but I have a feeling that if I had tried either the reeses' cups or the oreos, I would either be back there for my ninety ninth serving, or trying to sell the kids so that I could go back for the 100th.

I have to put in a plug for the incredibly handsome and talented young men who were directing traffic (this is Daniel's friend Erick).

and, of course, the junior horsemanship competition. This young lady was really nice and explained how it works to us city folk (well, suburbanites, anyway.).

Oh, Crud!

I really was planning to keep up with this blog business...not so much because I think anyone cares, but because when I check on myself, I want to know what I've been doing. Apparently, I've either been to busy to post or too depressed to care.

anyway. this past weekend was the Midfirst Ohio Hot Air Balloon Challenge in Middletown. My mom is the media broad (I was going to say 'chick', but 'broad' seems so much more powerful!). So I sent Dan up for a few days to help with whatever was needed. Then Karen and I went up and spent the night on Saturday and got to run around in the golf cart pretending to be important. The problem with that is that when you are driving a golf cart around a big event like that, people seem to think you should know something about what is going on. They ask questions and expect reasonable answers. I'm not going to be driving the golf cart around by myself there anymore, no matter how many cute skydivers I get to transport around the grounds.

Dan spent alot of time holding bee parts. Lily and Joey are the "Little Bees" and Dan was part of their crew.

Tom and Sam stayed south and went to Schutzenfest. Tom took money at the gate and Sam walked around and ate one of everything and played some sort of game that involved gambling on color choices made by a drunken rat.

Georgia on my mind

Georgia wasn't really on my mind, but I clicked on the 'georgia' font this morning to see what comes up. No time like the present for a change of scene, I always say! Okay, I don't always say that, but it came out anyway!

Karen got a real kick out of seeing an authentic 'old man on the beach with a metal detector' when we were on Tybee last week. She was so excited..."Mom! There's one of those guys! Take a picture!"
I love it...the guy was so blissed out, just sweeping along, listening to whatever comes through on that headset. I hope he found some treasures!

Savannah with troop 380

Okay, we survived the trip to Savannah, on a bus full of scouts and moms and one dad...52 of us, all together. Very minimal drama, considering all the adolescent and perimenopausal personalities present. We actually had a great time.

Here we are the first night, at Lighthouse Pizza on Tybee Island, where we stayed. This was a pretty good pizza place. They had REAL CRUST! Look! The parents are all still in good humor! Granted, it's mostly relief to be done with the 12 hour bus ride, but we enjoyed the food and the company, too.

On Tuesday, our whole group went to Lady and Son's restaurant. This is Paula Deen's place (that's me on the right, posing with the cardboard cutout of the lady herself. The food was really good, although it was your basic fried chicken buffet. There was baked chicked and some sort of chicken fried steak, too. Also greens, okra, green beans. The dessert was awesome: Gooey Butter Cake. The name alone was worth the price of admission.

Okay, so you see me up there, with the cardboard cutout....that's my daughter, below, with the real live Jamie Deen. How cute is he? OMG...

Karen wasn't quite as thrilled, but we'll save this picture for her...she'll appreciate it in a few years.